West was a fashion designer in the San Francisco Bay Area, with her own clothing stores in Berkeley, CA including her "Identikit by Jacqueline West" line.[1][2] Her first film work was for Philip Kaufman on Henry & June.[3] Brad Pitt has called her a "method costumer" after working with her in The Curious Case of Benjamin Button. West has said she was heavily influenced by her mother, who was an avant garde fashion designer in the 1940s and 50s.[4]